Retaining member for temporary binders



A ril 1 1935.

' H. FORTH 1,997,635 RETAINING MEMBER. FOR TEMPORARY BINDERS Filed July '51, 1954 INVENr'QI ZZ /mm, VErM/ Patented Apr. 16, 193s 1,997,635

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

hostess nn'rsmnvc MEMBER Fon rnmomnr amass Herman Forth, New York, N. Y., or to The Y Cooke & Cobb Company, Brooklyn, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application July 31, 1934, Serial No. 737,691

5 Claims. (c1. 24-153) My present invention relates to fasteners inother than the retaining element thereof being tended for use to secure papers, correspondence, omitted. documents, etc. for filing, and aims to provide Referring to the drawing, the numeral I indicertain improvements therein. More particularly cates the base of the fastener which has spaced it relates to the type of fastener which has a pair prongs or tongues ll formed integrally therewith 5 of prongs or tongues which pass through spaced and normally extending at right" angles to the perforations in the papers to be secured, and base and adapted to pass through perforations l2 which tongues are adapted to be bent down over in the papers l3 which are intended to be bound a retaining element or keeper and held thereby the fastener. The tongues Hare of a length against by locking means. to normally project through the mass of sheets i3 10 In most of the fasteners of the type set forth and to be bent down over a retaining member or in commercial use at present the tongues must be keeper Present invention s primarilythreaded through eyes or openings in the retaindirected to the character and construction of ing element, a procedure which is time-ccn umretaining member l4 and to the manner in which ing even when the tongues are smooth, and which t c p es W the tongues l procedure becomes more time-consuming and The retaining member I4 consists of an elondifficult after the fastener has been in use and the ate e at v y fl t element which y be formed tongues have become wrinkled and humped due, of metal, compressed fiber or other suitable mateto repeated opening and closing of the fastener rial, the Said element i t longitudinal g0 and the bending of the tongues at different points. edges bent upwardly and outwardly to provide thereof. rails I5 and a longitudinal channel l6 between The primary objects of my present invention said rails. The element M at each end is formed are to increase the speed and efliciency with which with a notch or fork ll of a width slightly greater such fasteners can be used and to generally imthan that of the tongues ll so as to readily receive prove the construction thereof. the latter, the inner wall of said notches or prongs 25 The foregoing and other objects of my in'venbeing preferably straight and forming substantion not specifically set forth, I accomplish by tially a right angle with the side walls of the forming each end of the retaining member with notches and providing a bearing over which the a notch or .as a fork extending longitudinally tongues II can be bent. The portions of the thereof, whereby the retaining member is enabled element flanking the notches or forming 'the tines 30 Y to fall into position between the tongues; be they of the fork are preferably bevelled or turned p rfectly smooth or wrinkled. I also propose to downwardly and are of a thickness or height such reinforce the ends of the retaining member at that the bases thereof lie in a common plane with the sides of the notches to add rigidity to the the underside of the element Id at thebase of the device and to give the whole a flat bearing upon channel 16, as best shown in Fig. 5. The purpose 35 the papers to be fastened. I- propose further to of having the bottoms of the forks and the under provide cooperating latching mean betw en the side of the channelled element in a common plane tongues and the locks to hold said-tongues in po-, to P v a fi rin f h m n d sition after being bent down over the retaining thus pr lude r kin there f while ndin 40 member. v o

The invention will be better understood from a or bent down Portions at h f B 1 erve to consideration of the accompanying drawing showrender the retaining member m r ri and ing a preferred embodiment thereof, and thereby not so susceptible to accidental deformawhereintion.

the tongues thereover. The rails and bevelled 40 Figure 1 is a longitudinal section through a Bridzing the channel of theretaining member 45 temporary binder embodying my invention. and carried by and movable over the rails, is a Fig. 2isa top plan view of the binder shownin Pair Of locks II. the lateral edges]! of which Fig. 1. 4 engage aroundtheedgesoftherailaasbestshown Fig. 3 is a perspective'vlew of the retaining in- 4. Preferably the engagementof'these 5o member sbowing its manner ofapplication to'the lateral edges around the rails is such that the 0 tongued elements ofthe binder. lower portions thereof are disposed above the Fig. 4 is asectiontaken substantially alongthe plane of the bottom of the-natehannel portion pianeofthelineb-lofrlmz; ll so as not to with the papers over Fig.5isasectiontaken substantially along-the which said retaining member is applied. Free 65 broken line ll ofl'ls. 2.thobinderelements movementottheloeksovertberailststhusprovided for and all danger of tearing the papers due to engagement of the locks therewith is avoided. To prevent the locks from moving longitudinally off of the retaining member, the forked portions thereof are made slightly wider than the width of the retaining member at the rails.

In practice it has been found desirable to latch the looks ,over the tongues after they have been bent down into the channel, and to accomplish this I have found that a very eflicient latch can be provided by forming perforations lla. adjacent the ends of the tongues and forming the locks with inwardly directed detents or projections l8a adapted to engage in the openings lla, as best shown in Fig. 4. Due to the resiliency and tendency of the tongues ll to'spring outwardly, the latching engagement between the openings lla and detents l8a is rendered very eflicient.

From the foregoing detailed description, it is thought that the manner of use of the device will be quite apparent. A few words of explanation, however, might be helpful. The base member ill with its tongues may be of any preferred construction and size, and is usually adapted to be detachably engaged upon a fixture carried by a binder cover (not shown). In securing papers or correspondence upon this base member said papers which are provided with spaced perforations are threaded over the tongues when the latter are extended in an upward direction, as shown at the right of Fig. 1 and in Fig. 3. After the papers are mounted on the tongues the retaining'member I4 is slipped between the tongues either by dropping it directly over the upstanding ends thereof or by first engaging one fork around one tongue and then the other fork about the other tongue. The portions of the tongues projecting above the surface of the papers to be filed are then bent downwardly over the shoulder provided at the inner ends of the forks or notches into the channel I6, after which the locks l8 are moved "along the rails into latching engagement with the tongues. If it is desired to add additional papers to the binder or to remove any papers therefrom,- this can be quickly accomplished by unlatching the locks from the tongues, bending the tongues to an upward position, whereupon the retaining member can be easily withdrawn. It will thus be seen that the speed and convenience with which the retaining member can be applied and removed is not impaired even though the tongues are wrinkled or humped due to repeated bending in use.

Although I have shown and described a preferred embodiment of my invention, I do not wish to be limited to the precise details of construction, since the same might be varied without departing from the spirit of the invention as defined in the accompanying claims.

What I claim is:

1. A fastener comprising a base having spaced tongues and a retaining member having rails at its longitudinal edges providing a fork at each end of the member of a width to receive the tongues and a longitudinal channel in the top of the member into which the tongues may be bent, and locks bridging the channel carried by and slidable over said rails to hold the bent down tongues within, the channel.

2..A retaining member for fasteners comprising an elongate relatively flat element having rails at its longitudinal edges providing a fork at each end of the member and a longitudinal channel in the top of the member and locks bridging the channel carried by and movable over said rails..

3. A retaining member for fasteners comprising an elongate relatively flat element having rails at its longitudinal edges providing a fork at each end of the member and a longitudinal channel in the top of the member, the rails at the forked ends of the member having portions thereof extending downwardly and terminating in the plane of the bottom of the flat element.

4. A retaining member for fastener comprising an elongate relatively flat element having rails at its longitudinal edges providing a fork at each end of the member and a longitudinal channel in the top of the member, the rails at the forked ends of the member having portions. thereof extended outwardly to increase the width of the element at said parts and locks bridging the channel carried by and movable over said rails and held against movement beyond the forked ends by the outwardly extending portions of the rails.

5. A retaining member for fasteners comprising an elongate relatively flat element having rails at its longitudinal edges providing a fork at each end of the member and a longitudinal channel in the top of the member and locks bridging the channel carried by and movable over said rails, said locks having their edges engaging around the rails and being disposed above the plane of the bottom of the flat element.

HERMAN FORTH. 

